A Fate-FULL Encounter
by IAmStoryteller
Summary: Senior year culinary student Yuno tries to find a good meal for the topic of his last major assignment during the 30th Annual Clover Citywide Food Festival. There he first encounters a grey-haired fry cook with the best hamburger ever...This short is for YunoAsu Week 2019, Day 7, Prompt: AU PART 1 OF 4


It was the 30th Annual Clover Citywide Food Festival. Clover City's streets were full of street vendors, food trucks, restaurants with lines going around the block, and demonstrations by the Golden Dawn Culinary School at the city square. 21-year-old Golden Dawn Culinary School senior Yuno Zephyr was not amongst his classmates at the demonstrations, however. No, Yuno was one of several to be chosen to taste test non-Golden Dawn food and report on it for the school blog and CloTube™ channel.

Normally, during the Festival, Yuno would have been holed up in the test kitchens preparing food with the other behind-the-scene type chefs, bakers and cooks, but Yuno was in his last year of culinary school and this was his major senior assignment. A perfectionist at heart, Yuno was intent on finding the best food, interviewing the chef and breaking down a well-done meal. There was no way that the elitist rich annoyances were going to beat Yuno—not after all his hard work to be the top of his class.

Unfortunately, Yuno had been wandering Clover City streets for the last four hours—he had tasted dozens of various food types. While everything was decent, it was not mind-blowingly good. Under the boiling late-spring sun, Yuno almost wanted to give up, especially since he felt his pasty white skin reddening with sunburn. He took a sip of his water and sighed as he went down the next street.

Clover City was not your average city. It was a foodies' paradise—every hole-in-the-wall joint existed, every foodie CloTuber lived and worked here and it was home to culinary elites, culinary schools of varying levels of prestige (the top was the Golden Dawn) and it was the home to KING, the 5-star restaurant of famous chef, author, traveler and food historian Julius Novachrono. Yuno moved to Clover City when he was 18 and luckily got accepted to the Golden Dawn Culinary School on a scholarship. He grew up in a small town miles south of Clover City, called Hage Village at an orphanage run by a kind nun named Sister Lily and an excited priest. It was a quiet life and he learned a lot of cooking and baking from Sister Lily, who in a previous life had been a baker and chef.

"Get your killer hamburgers here! All free for the last day of the Festival," screamed an annoyingly loud voice. It was someone with a cart. The guy was probably around Yuno's age, but he was on the short side, with wild grey hair and bright green eyes. The guy did not look like he cooked hamburgers all the time, as he clearly worked out.

_No, Yuno, focus,_ he told himself.

Warm and slightly flustered now, Yuno felt a headache coming on just from today's excitement, but he needed something for his assignment. Sighing, Yuno went over to the cart and found that people were not flocking to this guy's cart. Hamburgers and other "fast food" types were not his favorite but it's not like Yuno never indulged in fast food, especially when he was in a studying zone.

"Hey, pretty boy! You want one," said the loud guy. On closer inspection, Yuno was startled at the bright grin on the grey-haired young man's face. It was kind of endearing.

Yuno nodded.

The grin got brighter as the guy quickly and clearly expertly put together a hamburger on a paper plate for Yuno. "Let me know what you think! I used a different cheese than regular yellow and a different blend of meats for the patty!"

Yuno eyed the food on the plate. It was not attractive at all—hastily thrown on the plate. While the presentation was awful, taste was what mattered. As habit, Yuno analyzed what he seen on the burger. Thin patty grilled perfectly on the outside, a slice of cheese (taste will tell him which kind), and chopped onions all between potato buns.

Without much fanfare, Yuno took a bite and chewed slowly to savor the flavor.

The grey-haired cook looked excited and expectantly at Yuno

Yuno was startled at how _freaking wonderful _this simple hamburger tasted. It was the best thing he ate all day! Yuno felt his lips upturning into a smile (causing the grey-haired man to get a very pleased look on his face) but before Yuno could compliment the amazing cook, there was some whistles blowing in the distance.

The police were there. "HEY YOU WE TOLD YOU NO PERMIT NO FEEDING THE PUBLIC!"

"Aw, shit," said the grey-haired man, wincing. "Sorry, gotta run. Thanks for eating!" With clearly expert skill in evading the cops, the hamburger cook packed his cart and bolted with it down the street. The cops rushed past Yuno to chase after him.

Yuno was just stunned. He knew that it was hard (and expensive if you didn't know the right people) to get food permits, but Yuno never thought one of the non-permit people would make the best thing Yuno ever ate in recent memory.

As Yuno stood on the street eating the rest of the hamburger, he thought two things—one was that the grey-haired boy seemed familiar and two, Yuno was definitely going to marry that man.


End file.
